Venom
by Lynx of E-Unit
Summary: When an agent is severely injured escaping from a missile base they've destroyed, is it too late for Jones and her deputy to decode the agent's bizarre message? ***Please read first AN or you won't understand what's going on!*** T for mild swearing and graphic descriptions of injuries/blood etc. Don't read if you're squeamish.
1. The Boomslang

****This is set after Blunt retires****

**Mrs. Tulip Jones is head of MI6 and Alan Brynes is her deputy. I know them having the same first name is confusing, but please, just go with it! **

_**Tom is not the Tom in the books and Smith is not Smithers.**_

**This isn't a one-shot, and it isn't finished yet, either. I didn't want to seperate what I already had into chapters, because the paragraphs are all so short.**

**I haven't read any Alex Rider books apart from Stormbreaker, but I've picked stuff up from fanfiction, so apologies if any of this is innacurate.**

_**Each time related subheading relates to the one before it**_

**I DO NOT OWN ALEX RIDER**

* * *

Tulip looked up when she heard a noise comparable to a helicopter crash. And she knew what those _really _sounded like.

It turned out that it was actually a large file slamming abruptly down on her desk.

"And what was that for?"

"Smith. Hasn't reported in for over 3 months. He was probably still in the compound when it exploded."

"I know they declared him MIA 2 months ago, but surely-"

"I'm sorry, Tulip. He was presumed dead this morning."

Mrs Jones lifted her weary head to meet the eyes of her deputy and sighed heavily, "He was the best man we had, Alan."

"I know. We won't find another like him."

"Never."

"Never" agreed Brynes.

* * *

**3 ½ months earlier**

Tom was distantly aware that he felt excruciatingly hot, and that his head was pounding, his ears ringing. He could feel the heat on himself. It hurt. If he had been capable of thinking about it he would probably have realised that the hairs on his neck were singed.

He also registered dimly, in what remained of his mind, that he couldn't feel his legs, at all.

His vision faded to black.

* * *

**2 weeks earlier**

_"Dringallingalingalingaling!"_

Smith groaned, rolled over, and groggily answered the phone, "W'sgoinon?"

A disturbingly robotic female voice answered, "Your presence is required at the bank, immediately. You have an urgent appointment concerning your credit rating."

"N'our"

"An hour? Very well. We will send a car-"

"I'll take the tube."

"Have a nice day."

Smith hung up, "Have a nice day? Huh. Unlikely."

* * *

**2 months later**

Tom dragged himself another few feet. His ears were still ringing, and the inferno behind him still raged on, growling and devouring the land around it, grain by grain, like the terrible beast it was.

Tom had been at this, as far as he could tell, for over a month already. Maybe longer, maybe shorter. He really didn't know. But he was a good guesser. That's why '6 had hired him, wasn't it?

Nonetheless, however long he'd been at this, he was still less than a mile away. He had only three large bottles of water left, half a cereal bar, and no more bandages. With a sigh, he succumbed to the darkness he had become so accustomed to.

* * *

**Another 2 months later**

Tom realised the danger he was in far, far too late. The snake bunched itself, latching onto his left leg, and for the first time in 3 ½ months, he was glad he couldn't feel it.

He sighed, knowing that this lack of sensation wouldn't stop the poison from this Boomslang* killing him. He'd run out of food long ago, but he could manage. He had only half a bottle of water left- too precious to waste flushing out a slow acting poison. He could survive that longer than he'd survive without water. He had 72 hours, max.

* * *

**2 days later**

"There! Look!"

"We've found him!"

The two medics on board began screaming instructions at everyone, like a pair of possessed howler monkeys. Or something.

The helicopter slowed and landed, and before it was fully stationary, two SAS medics hit the ground, running towards an unconscious figure.

"Bloody hell" said Snake.

Leopard turned to him, and nodded.

* * *

**Later that day**

"Well?" demanded Alan Brynes, deputy head of Military Intelligence sector 6.

"Third degree burns, fractured ribs, brain haemorrhage caused by Haemotoxic venom from a snake bite, multiple organ failure- also from the snake bite- and his spinal cord is severed at the waist.

"And?"

"The main haemorrhage is in the medulla oblongata region- the lower half of the brain stem- and that has caused issues with several autonomic functions, including heart rate and breathing. He's on an emergency Cardiopulmonary Bypass- a heart-lung machine- and needs urgent surgery, but we cannot operate when he is so critical. He needs to be stabilised first. The spinal damage has irreversibly paralysed him, and he may need to have his left leg amputated due to gangrene. He also appears to have further brain damage, either to his hippocampus or his frontal lobe, because he appeared delusional and was talking to himself like a madman. He-"

"What did he say?"

"C5S07. Missile. A creepy. 6, 6, 6, 6, 6."

Brynes was gone, already running to Smith's room.

* * *

**1 week later**

"He was a good man, a patriotic man, and he will be greatly missed"

And with those words, the ground swallowed the late Tom Smith, never to return.

The only two at the service turned away and quietly left, without shedding so much as a single tear.

* * *

**1 week before**

Alan turned into the room in time to see a shoe disappear out of a window. He yelled, loudly, raising the alarm. He turned to see a flat line across a monitor, and a single cut cord hanging limply by the bed. Doctors and Nurses rushed in, and Alan was pushed to the back of the room. It was only then he saw four guards, either out cold or dead, huddled in the corner.

"I'm sorry. There was nothing we could do."

* * *

**That afternoon**

"Oh. My. God. Alan, what on earth happene-"

"Ma'am, he said something! The Doctors say he was delusional, but he wasn't! He said 'C5S07, Missile, Akrepi, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6'"

"So," Tallulah began, "What do you make of it?"

"Akrepi** and missile- well, we can work that out. He destroyed their missile base, but perhaps he found another? Or it was a codeword for a mission? That could explain why they sent an assassin, too- he knew too much. C5S07 could be a map reference, a password, a coded message- anything. I've got our best teams looking into it as we speak. And the sixes-"

"That's us."

"Precisely."

* * *

**Please, don't hesitate to tell me how bad this is, but no flames, please.**

**Now, if you haven't worked it out, Tom Smith is Alex Rider. I couldn't call him Alex because people would work out that he was one person, not two, before the funeral scene. Please don't kill me for killing Alex!**

**Please ignore the fact he couldn't survive that long on such limited rations. Poetic license :)**

**I already have the finishing paragraph, but I need to tie a load of stuff up first, so this story will probably have 3 or 4 chapters overall, but the ones after this will likely be shorter. Short but [hopefully] sweet!**

*****Challenges*****

**✰ what is a Boomslang?**

**✰ What does Akrepi mean? What/Who are they?**

**✰ What does Tom's message mean? (even I don't know- responses I like may influence the plot!)**

**✰ What should happen to Akrepi? Alternatively, what should happen because of Akrepi?**

*****Suggestions welcome!*****

**If the third challenge isn't answered, I can't finish the story o_O! I have discovered Writer's block :(**


	2. Important

Hello everyone!

Just so you know, there is a poll on my page for what happens in the story. If you have any other ideas, drop a review!

Please pick one A option and one B option in the poll :)


End file.
